Innovation has always fascinated me – it is something that keeps me going. There is one particular aspect about “innovation” that keeps thinking: the difference between Innovation and Improvement (making great things better). Innovators don’t think about  improving an existing solution. Innovation is about understanding a problem from a high level and then diving deep into all necessary details, then creating a holistic view of the situation and dismissing all existing solutions.

From that point on, innovation is creating a whole new and disruptive solution, methodology or process which wouldn’t be created otherwise.

If I would have simply built what our customers told me in regards to lead management – the PULL methodology would have never been invented. If I would have listed to friends and industry leaders how to build a successful whole sale distribution company, Computer 2000, which was the largest European computer distributor would have never been built. If Gottlieb Daimler would have built what friends told him to do, he stated once “It would be an automatic feeding machine for horses instead of creating an Automobile”.

Innovation is more than out of the box thinking. Innovation requires a deep understanding of a given problem, ignorance in regards to existing solutions, abstract thinking and dealing with complexity – then patience to create an end-to-end solution.